Tie-wire for concrete forms



Nov, 28, 1961 J. C. SHO EMA'KER 3 010 175 TIE-WIRE CONCRETE FORMSOriginal Filed Jan. 15, 1958 III U IIH United States Patent 6 3,010,175TIE-WIRE FOR CONCRETE FORMS James C. Shoemaker, Loves Paris, 111.,assignor to Simplex Forms System, Inc., Rockford, 111., a corporation ofIllinois Original application Jan. 13, 1958, Ser. No. 708,467, nowPatent No. 2,920,371, dated Jan. 12, 1960." Divided and this applicationAug. 10, 1959, Ser. No. 832,736

1 Claim. (Cl. 25-131) This application is a division of my co-pendingapplication, Serial No. 708,467, filed January 13, 1958, (now Patent No.2,920,371, issued January 12, 1960) which in turn is acontinuation-in-part of another copending application, Serial No.533,329, filed September9, 1955, which resulted in Patent No. 2,898,659,issued August 11, 1959.

This invention relates to improvements in tie-wires for use withconcrete forms.

In the setting up of concrete forms, as disclosed in my co-pendingapplication Serial No. 708,467 and also in my Patent 2,825,956, issuedMarch 11, 1958, an elongated lever pivoted at one end on one of twoabutting form sections has a slot provided in its other end portionextending from one longitudinal edge to receive the outer end portion ofthe tie-wire for the two-fold-purpose of causing abutment of one pair ofshoulders: on the' Wire with the back of a metal strip on one of theform sections and also tight abutment 'of another pair of shoulders onthe wire with the lever, whereby to fix the form sections of the innerand outer walls of the form in a pro-determined spaced relationship andtie abutting form sections together simultaneously in alignedrelationship. In accordance with the present invention, I provideimproved tie-wires having, in addition to the usual snap-ofi pointinside the forms at or adjacent the surface of the concrete wall,another snapoif point outside the forms adjacent the outer pair ofshoulders on the wire adapted to be fractured upon bending or twistingof the wire, so that after the poured concrete has hardened in the formsand while the levers are still inter-engaged with the tie-wires to holdthe same against turning, the protruding tip or end portion of thetie-wires may be bent or twisted off to free the levers and theassociated form sections relative to the tie-wires for quicker and mucheasier stripping of the form sections from the concrete wall. Flats areprovided on the extremities of the tiewires designed for application ofa tool for twisting off the extremities at the aforesaid weakenedportions. The additional snapotl portion is defined by grooves or crimpsimpressed in the Wires next to the outer pair of shoulders, similargrooves or crimps being impressed in' the wires idea of how theshouldersare formed by the-two-way squeezing of the wire at each of the fourpoints in longitudinally spaced relationship and also how the crimpsdefine the weakening which enables easily snapping off the protrudingtip or end portion of the tie-wire next to the g lever that isinterengaged with it;

at a pre-determined distance inwardly from the outer ends to enablesnapping off the protruding portions of the wires at or adjacent thesurface of the concrete wall after the forms are stripped therefrom.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which FIG.1 is a perspective view of a concrete form structure in which tie-wiresmade in accordance with my invention are illustrated;

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 22 of FIG. 1 showing my improvedtie-wire to better advantage.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of one end portion of a tie-Wire shownsubstantially twice size to give a better FIG. 4 is an isolated view ofthe tie-Wire of FIG. 2 as viewed from above, and

FIG. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding partsthroughout the views.

Referring to the drawing, and first mainly to FIG. 1, the referencenumerals 8 and 9 designate the inner and outer walls, respectively, of aconcrete form structure made in accordance with my invention. Each ofthese walls is made up of a number of fairly small and light rectangularpanel form sections 10. Each section may, for example, be about two feetwide and about eight feet long, the length being equivalent to the depthof the basement whose walls are to be made from poured concrete. .Thesections 10 are disposed in edge to edge abutting relation and securedtogether by spacer pins or tiewires 11 and locking bars or levers 12,with the inner and outer walls 8 and 9-held in uniformly spaced relationand the sections 10 in each of these walls secured together firmly incoplanar relationship and tight abutment. Each section 10 is preferablyof wooden construcnesshaving horizontally extending fiat metal strips 13secured to the outer side thereof, usually at three levels, namely, atthe top, middle and bottom portions of the form sections, althoughmorestrips may be employed in the case of form sections for a deeperbasement. Screws 14 are used in the fastening of the strips and arepreferably entered in sleeve nuts, the heads of which come flush withthe inner side of the panels. In the construction of each of the walls 8and 9, the panels 10 are disposed in edge to edge abutment, excepting atthe corners of the structure, where certain variations in thisarrangement become necessary. The tie-wires 11, which serve as spacerpins between. walls 8 and 9, extend through notches 15 provided in oneend of each panel and have near each end inner and outer shoulders 16and 17 defined at opposite ends of a vertically flattened portion 18that is adapted to be entered freely in a bayonet slot 19 in theprojecting end portion 20 of a strip 13, whereby loosely to space a formsection 10 of the outer Wall 9 preliminary to the final lockup and rigidfastening together of sections in walls 8 and 9 by means of the lockingbars or levers 12. The spacer pins or tie-wires 11 are positivelyconnected to the form sections in the slots 19 well enough to serve ascoupling pins to be connected to by levers 12 for positively' pullingneighboring form sections in walls 8 and 9 into tight abutment.

When the bars or levers 12 are applied to the spacer pins or tie-Wires11 serving in their dual capacity both as spacer pins and as couplingpins, the inner and outer walls 8 and 9 are tied together in rigidlyspaced relationship, and at the same time the neighboring form sections10 in each of said walls are tied together in coplanar relationship andtight abutment. The locking bars or levers 12, as disclosed in my Patent2,825,956, are permanently pivotally secured near one end of'each formsection 10 on the reduced smooth cylindrical shank portions 3 providedbehind the heads of bolts 21, each of these bolts being entered througha vertical slot 22 in one of the locking bars 12 and through aregistering hole in strips 13 and into a sleeve nut, similarly as screws1 -1. Thus, the locking bars 12 may be swung about the bolts 21 aspivots and also may be adjusted bodily up or down in planes parallel tothe outer faces of the form sections at right angles to the ends of thetie-wires 11, each of the bars being arranged to engage the flattenedportions 18 of these wires in a slot 23 provided in the free ends of thelocking bars. This accomplishes a double tieup or lockup action, namely,the tying together in rigidly spaced relation of the inner and outerwalls 8 and 9, and at the same time the tying together in coplanarrelationship and tight abutment of the neighboring form sections ofthese inner and outer walls. edge portion of each locking bar 12 isbevelled onopposite sides of the slot 23 on the outer side, tofacilitate the interlocking engagement of the ends of the tie-wires 11in the slots 23 so that the form sections 10 may be wedged into theirfinal assembled positions as the bars 12 are forced downwardly intotying position. Theelongation vertically of the slots 22 has a two-foldadvantage, namely, it enable shifting the bars 12 bodily upwardly ordownwardly, as may be necessary to compensate for run-out of the strips13 from coplanar disposition of the adjoining ends that are to becoupled together on neighboring form sections, and it also enableseasier coupling where the ends of the strips13 to be coupled together donot happen to be in abutment or close to abutment, in which case thesliding of the bar 12 downwardly in relation to the bolt 21 gives aslightly longer radius than is usually needed to permit engagement ofthe projecting end of the tie-wire 11 in the. slot 23, after which it isa simple matter to jog the bar 12 upwardly to locate the bolt 21 nearerthe middle of the slot 22, thereby drawing together the ends of theneighboring form sections by cam action much more tightly than wouldotherwise be possible. To obtain greater rigidity of the formstructureas a whole and at the same time secure more accurate alignment of theends of the strips 13 and panels 10, and accordingly improve thesmoothness of the foundation at the joints between abutting formsections, another bolt 21' is provided in spaced relation to the bolt21, nearer the end of the strip 13 and at a slightly lower elevationthan the bolt 21, as clearly appears in FIG. 1. This bolt 21 is securedto the panel 10 and strip 13 by means'of a sleeve nut in the same way asthe bolt 21, and to cooperate with an additional slot 25 is providedintermediate the ends of the bar 12 opening from the same longitudinaledge as the slot 23, and this additional slot receives the head end ofthe bolt 21, as shown in the upper level in FIG. 1, when the bar 12 isswung down to locking position; That side of the slot 25 nearest thebolt 21 is cut away, as indicated at 26, so that the slot is actuallyV-shaped and is wide enough at the lower end to receive the reducedshank portion on the head end of the bolt 21, regardless of which end ofthe slot 22 is used in the pivoting of the bar 12 with respect to bolt21. Inasmuch as the bar 12 is held by bolt 21' against even such slightdeflection with respect to the strip 13 as might otherwise be permittedif only the bolt 21 was relied upon, it follows that when the bar 12 ismoved home to locking position there is bound to be more accuratealignment of the ends of the strips 13 and accordingly also of thepanels 10, and the connection between the strips is bound to be far morerigid and the rigidity of the form structure as a whole is increased,and, due

to the fact that the form sections are maintained in more accuratealignment, theresulting foundation is smoother at the joints between'the abutting form sections than would otherwise be true. However, tostill further in sure closer accuracy of alignment'of the abutting formsections I may also'provide, as shown in FIG. 1, lineup rails orstringers 27 of channel shaped cross-section to As indicated at 24, thelower fit down over the upper edge portions of the panels 10 andspanning the joints 28 between the abutting sections. These lineup railsare sulficiently above the level to which the concrete is usually pouredin the form structure so that there will be nothing to interfere witheasy removal of these rails when the forms are to be stripped from thefoundation. The lower edge portions 29 in these rails are flaredoutwardly to facilitate entering the upper edge portions of the panels10 therein. The lineup rails will, of course, be used on both the innerand outer walls 8 and 9 of the form structure although one is shown inFIG. 1 applied only to the outer wall 9.

The spacer pins or tiewires 11, which are preferably of semi-hard wire,originally of circular section, are flattened first in a horizontalplane the full length'thereof, as indicated in FIG. 5, to provideparallel flat faces 30 on the top and bottom of the pin the full lengththereof,

excepting only at the four places 31, 32 33, and 34, where the wire issubjected to a second squeeze or flattening in a vertical plane todefine the shoulders 16 and 17 at opposite ends of each of thesevertically flattened porportions 31-34, as indicated at 35, with a viewto 'defining a thinner and hence weaker section where first theprotruding tip or end portion of the tie-wire outside the forms may bemost easily snapped off. With this form of tie-wire -a wrench W, asindicated in FIG. 4, can be applied to the flats 36 on the protrudingtip or end portions of the tie-wires 11 to twist the same ofl? at theshoulders 17' to loosen the lev'ers 12 so that they can be disconnectedmore easily from the tie-wires after the concrete has set and the formsare ready to be stripped from the wall. The tie-wires 11 are held by thelevers 12 against turning so that this twisting off operation on theprotruding tip or end portion is made easy. Of course, after the formshave been stripped from the wall the same wrench can be applied to theflattened portions 31 and 34 to snap off the rest of the protruding endportions of the tiewires at or adjacent the surface of the concretewall. The vertically flattened extremities 36 are defined between theadjoining lengths defining the separate tie-wires, Where the individualwires are sheared ofi from a continuous length ofv wire after thecompletion of the second flattening operation.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding ofthe objects and advantages of my invention. The appended claim has beendrawn to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

In combination, a pair of panel sections disposed in coplanar edge toedge abutment to define a joint in one of two walls of a concrete formstructure, a tie-wire disposed at right angles to said panel sectionsand extending through said joint to space said abutting panel sectionsfrom another pair of similarly abutting panel sections in the other wallof said concrete form structure,

means for rigidly-but detachably connecting said first mentioned panelsections in abutting coplanar relation comprising a slotted elongatedmember disposed in transverse relationship to said joint and abuttingthe outer side of said panel sections and pivotally'connected at its oneend to one of said abutting panel sections for swinging movement to andfrom tying position, said member being detachably connectible by itsslotted portion in the tying position to the protruding end portion ofsaid tiewire and to the other of said abutting panel sections, theprotruding end portion of said tie-wire having parallel flat surfacesdefined on opposite sides thereof behind shoulders to fit in the slottedportion of the elongated member with the shoulders abutting the outerface thereof to prevent outward displacement of said panel sectionsrelative to said tie-wire, the extremity of the protruding end portionof said tie-wire being formed to fit a tool for twisting off saidprotruding end portion including said shoulders while the tie-wire isheld against turning by engagement in the slotted portion of saidmember, there being a weaker section on said tie-wire immediately behindsaid shoulders to facilitate the twisting ofl? of the protruding endportion, whereby to speed up stripping of the form sections from apoured concrete wall after the concrete has set.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

